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All the patients hospitalised at Besanc¸on Hospital between October 2000 and December 2000 were included in a prospective study in order to determine the incidence of bloodstream infections caused by coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS), the prevalence of decreased susceptibility to glycopeptides and the molecular epidemiology of these pathogens. CNS isolates from bloodstream infections were collected and characterised by analysis of antibiotic susceptibility and restriction fragment length polymorphism using pulsed field gel electrophoresis. Forty-five episodes of CNS bacteremia occurred in 43 patients. The crude incidence of infected patients was 0,51 per 1,000 days of hospitalisation. These 45 bacteremia represented 23.3% of the total number of bacteraemia. Forty three of 45 bacteremia were studied, 36 were positive with a single PFGE pattern, 5 bacteraemias with 2 PFGE patterns, and 2 bacteraemias with 3 PFGE patterns. We identified 52 distinct PFGE patterns and 42 major PFGE patterns (35 were isolated in a single patient, 5 in 2 patients and 2 in 3 patients). The dendrogram generated showed deep but limited branching, each large branch corresponding to a species. Of these CNS isolates, 28.8% and 25.0% showed decreased susceptibility to teicoplanin, with the reference method and E-test respectively. The 16 strains belonging to multiple PFGE patterns  were not more resistant to teicoplanin. Clonal dissemination did not seem to play a major role in the spread of glycopeptides resistance among CNS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We conducted a prospective study to identify predictors of inappropriateness of surgical prophylaxis. A total of 72 surgeon-anaesthesist pairs participated in data collection. We assessed practices by addressing 5 questions: did the surgical procedure justify the use of antimicrobial prophylaxis, and was it provided? Was the correct agent used? Was the timing of prophylaxis optimal? Was the duration of prophylaxis correct? Was the dose correct? We reviewed 687 procedures, 513 (74.7%) of which were included in the analysis. The proportion of these procedures with totally compliant prescriptions was 41.7%. Of the 156 patients who received an inappropriate drug, 133 (85.3%) received a drug with a broader spectrum than that recommended. Prophylaxis lasted too long in 81 (89.0%) of the 91 patients who received prophylaxis of incorrect duration. Multivariate analysis revealed a clear association between non-compliant prophylaxis and two operation-specific factors: prosthesis implantation (with a relative risk of 2.52) and clean-contaminated operations (with a relative risk of 4.19). More than 50% of patients received inappropriate surgical prophylaxis. Non-observance of guidelines was related to factors that did not influence the infectious potential of the flora. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]